December 29, 2010

"There seems to be no shame or anything. They call him all kinds of names all day long, saying he's doing certain things that he's not. It's just a big old political game that I don't want to be part of. There are people spending their lives putting him down. I'm sure some of it's true and some of it's not. I was very surprised to find the man very humble and he had a nice handshake. His wife was very cordial to the guests and especially me. They made a special effort to make me feel welcome. It was not at all the way the media described him to be."

"He's not conceited. He's very humble about being the President of the United States, especially in comparison to some presidents we've had who come across like they don't need anybody's help. I think he knows he's in over his head. Anybody with any sense who takes that job and thinks they can handle it must be an idiot."

I still love the story about when Merle Haggard saw Johnny Cash one night after Haggard hit it big. Haggard told Cash that he really enjoyed that show back at San Quentin. Cash said he didn't remember Haggard playing with him back then. Haggard said - I wasn't on stage, I was in the audience.

I have to say I'm surprised. I've found a lot of Hillary supporters to be less accepting of Obama than some Republicans.

Eight years in the White HouseWith the know-how we needWhen you walk with a leaderYou learn how to leadAnd who kept her head highWhen it could have been downWho ran the showWhen the scandal hit townThis country needs to be honestChanges need to be largeSomething like a big switch of genderLet’s put a woman in chargePut a woman in charge of the ArmyPut a woman in charge of the wheelThe country owes it to HillaryAnd Hillary owes it to Bill.

Even the Bush Administration’s harshest critics could never have credibly claimed that George W. Bush was irrelevant. He might have been hated, pilloried and shouted about– but he couldn’t be ignored. However Obama can be safely ignored. Invited to parties, given the chance to show off his cosmopolitan sophisticated by reciting one or two words in the local lingo, read off a teleprompter, along with some cant about the need for everyone to pull together and make the world a better place, and then dismissed for the rest of the evening.

Bernie Maddoff violated his fiduciary responsibility to his clients to the tune of billions of dollars and will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. The Dems did far worse to more people and the worst they face is not getting reelected. That's what is really almost criminal.

Irene: Two things about the handshake. A firm one indicates that one has been taught and that one is teachable. A weak one indicates that through the vast number of handshakes the weak shaker has still not gotten it.

The Queen - "I know. You focused on "he knows he's in over his head," didn't you?"

You're kidding, right?

The teabagger nutcases who are here every day of their lives...who follow your every lead, worship Princess Sarah, the Fat Man, Beck, Hannity and anybody else who spends their day denigrating the president's every move, word or proposal...and you had to actually ask?

For someone who you and others think is "in over his head," keep this in mind: He's passed more legilation in such a short period of time than any previous president other than Lyndon Johnson...so he appears to be catching on pretty fast.

Jeremy: Is it because you work for people who are a lot less smart than you and make more money that you are always so pissed off? Is it because guys who made worse grades are doing better? What exactly is it that causes you to be so smugly in the right and so very mad about it? I suppose the success of others eats at you pretty mightily, but all the time? Every second? Dude, relax, even though every single person you know is fairing better you are still the smartest guy around. There is that, right?

While the birthers appear to have been disproven (note "appear to have been"), the DINOcrat bashing of those who demanded proof of BO's citizenship--and other bio-info-- was nearly as annoying as the worst of the birthers themselves. Shouldn't the public have the right to know everything? During Bush/Kerry the press had access to college records and much else. With BO, they sealed his college records, and other info. Eventually the Hawaii officials coughed up a COLB and other info, and it looks fairly legit. (tho some question it--for one, BO was out of the country shortly after his birth, and held citizenship in indonesia as a child).

The Demos seemed to insist people didn't even have the right to examine the evidence. Another reason some of us object to the modern Demo apparatchiks as well as to the GOPers and teabaggers.

The 60s counterculture was not about valuing traditional Demo politics ala LBJ or Humphrey anymore than Nixon-Co. AS Hunter S Thompson realized (HST thought LBJ at least as sinister as Nixon---with Kennedys not far behind).

I focused on the idiot comment. Haggard is right that one would have to be an idiot to think themselves qualified to run our government as currently constituted---- where every major decision is made in a central location and there are very few limits to what it is allowed to do.

So yes, Obama clearly thinks he is up to the job and yes, he is clearly an idiot for thinking so.

Without more, I say Merle is just being gracious and genteel. That's my impression.

As for the birth certificate thing, I'm mostly surprised by the fact that none of the 57 states have enacted a law requiring the furnishing of birth certificates before candidates for POTUS are placed on the ballot. Seems like a natural and obvious Constitutional condition precedent. Maybe some will now what with all those state legislatures recently going red, just in time for the 2012 elections.

G Joubert said..."As for the birth certificate thing, I'm mostly surprised by the fact that none of the 57 states have enacted a law requiring the furnishing of birth certificates before candidates for POTUS are placed on the ballot."

What's left of Haggard's mind is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Obama is playing good cop now after playing bad cop by capturing America and Bureaucratising the necessary means of life and death, stopping all use of cheap energy and turning the TSA and the DEA into gestapo units.

Why does this get brought up every time? It's as if people don't really care about the answer.

Yes, McCain was asked for his birth certificate by the Senate. And yes, he provided both the long and short form.I would link it, but I have done that so many times yet it never seems to make a difference.So if you really care, google John McCain birth certificate and you can see images of them.

Jeremy: You can get another, better job that won't be so stressful, where you might have a chance at a promotion. A place where you wouldn't have to deal with a bunch of dumb bosses and clients. Have you thought of that? Because a happier person lives longer. And happier.

The teabagger nutcases who are here every day of their lives...who follow your every lead, worship Princess Sarah, the Fat Man, Beck, Hannity and anybody else who spends their day denigrating the president's every move, word or proposal...and you had to actually ask?

So, outside of entertainment and audience size --- how are they different than you, circa 2000 - 2008?

Or is it only wrong to denigrate THIS President?

For someone who you and others think is "in over his head," keep this in mind: He's passed more legilation in such a short period of time than any previous president other than Lyndon Johnson...so he appears to be catching on pretty fast.

Amazing how having huge majorities in both Houses makes that kind of thing possible, huh?

NOW, he is intending to use federal agencies to regulate things in ways both courts and the Congress have said they lack the power to regulate.

But, hey, that whole "unitary executive" thing isn't a concern now, right? Just like Gitmo is no longer a terrorist recruitment tool or an American embarrassment.

Well, he was just voted the most admired man in the country...so it appears you're full of shit.

So, he wins the award, well, every President wins every year? Amazing.

And the Gallup Daily Polling has him at 47-46...approval.

So, most people don't support him. Thanks for the update.

Hint: 47% isn't a majority.

Once again: Unemployment was at7.6% the day littel Georgie headed out...and at 8.2% three weeks later.

First I thought maybe it was a trick and this was an old statement about Bush. Then I thought you'd follow up with a statement Merle had made about Bush that was exactly the sort of statement he now decries. Then, finally, I focused on "he's in over his head."

Jeremy: Unemployment up only 21 percent under Obama and you consider this a triumph? Twenty one percent is a lot don't you think? I know you are pissed off at all the dumber people doing better than you in every area of life, but don't you think a 21 percent increase in unemployment is a bad thing?

It's pretty desperate to liken Enron to the severity of the Great Republican Recession, damikesc - if that's what you're trying to get at.

Especially when it's the Great Democrat Recession, caused by Willie Whitewater and his subprime mortgages and made all the worse by The Zero and his Senate pals who could have stopped it, as Dubya tried to get them to do.

EDH wrote: Hey, hey, we're The Monkeys, and we just shut-up and sing (but really don't play our instruments)

I think they were called The Monkees so something even less literal. The only one who didn't play, at least in studio sessions, was Mickey Dolenz. Tork and Nesmith could play after a fashion, and that Davy Jones guy also played his tambourine. (After all the only only way to NOT play the tambourine is to avoid being in the same room with it)

The poor understanding of economics by the political left is a source of pessimism about solving the terrible problems we face. Obama will try to bypass Congress and implement jib killing regulations by executive order or regulation since he has lost the majority in Congress. The best conventional wisdom I hear is that we will have about a year long boost from the continuation of tax rates, then another decline as the impending tax increases, which Obama has promised, approach. 2012 will be an interesting election. I don't see Obama doing a Bill .

The same people who today hail Merle Haggard's comments on Obama would have dismissed him as an ignorant hillbilly with a criminal record yesterday, especially if he had made similar comments about Bush.

Unfortunately for Haggard (and us Americans generally) his assessment of Obama's character is faulty, as such unreflective assessments are wont to be. If Obama were a man of genuine humility he would not have accepted the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, if for no other reason (specifically no accomplishments in the field) than respect for the memory of Alfred Nobel.

The fact that this is the best he could say about him is what's telling. Are these things really what you care about in a President, because they are certainly true of a lot of losers.

My handshake often sucks, because I'm thinking about how to kill you with my other hand while I'm at it. I get distracted like that easily. It doesn't mean I wouldn't make a good President. It does mean Putin won't send my head to the Congress in a paper bag some day. Choose carefully.

Oh yes. Tyco. Anderson. Throw those into the mix and let's pretend they add up to the mess that the deregulators (who still refuse to pass any meaningful reform on bank regulation - guess they know who's buttering their bread) have got us into. Pretty desperate.

I have not once proposed that nothing be done on lending restrictions. But the Republican refusal to stop letting the fox guard the henhouse is what's prolonging this second global catastrophe. What's the matter? Wasn't one Great Depression enough? You fuckers are as shameless as you are mathematically inept. Were Democrats to blame for 1929 as well? Do you ever learn from history?

You guys are just too ashamed to do anything but make the problem worse and use it to political advantage. No wonder Glenn Beck had to go up there and talk about restoring "honor" and all that jazz. I guess you just take from those sermons abstract lessons rather than actually taking them to heart and trying for integrity.

Just admit it: You don't care about the economy as long as it can be used to your political advantage.

"Reich", "my" party, etc. Which Democrats are opposing regulating Wall Street? The ones who just got paid a bunch by those crooks to run in and win an election?

Looks like your empty suits will be having a nice time. But don't blame the idiots whom you got to vote for them. Blame Democrats. Shame is so much worse for you than taking responsibility, I know.

Feel proud, Damikesc! Your empty suits will be making a lot of money and gaining a lot of influence out of allowing Wall Street to maintain an unstable economy. Own up to it. It's how you measure your worth as people. If I've figured anything out at this point, I've learned that much.

Be proud of it and stop blaming Democrats for a situation that you are all too happy to continue.

The sentence fragment I focused on was "... especially in comparison to some presidents we've had who come across like they don't need anybody's help."

Any doubt who he meant? Is Haggard not participating there in the thing he is condemning? Is that not accepted as received wisdom only because it contributed to his opinion that was already rigid? But, yes, Haggard, be dismayed. We've all experienced eight straight years of straight up id flying around completely unleashed, and it's still being exercised. So expect nothing less.

Okay now let me get this straight though; Willie Nelson is the one with the ponytail, right?

"So when I see all these rock stars up there talking politics, it makes me sick. If you're listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you're a bigger moron than they are. Why are we rock stars? Because we're morons. We sleep all day, we play music at night and very rarely do we sit around reading the Washington Journal."

The other presidents he speaks of derisively... I wonder if he has ever met any of them. I'm betting not. I don't think we've had a President in recent memory who didn't manage to impress people when meeting with them one-on-one.

Via Memeorandum, I read a blog called LeanLeft.com. The article was written by Kevin T. Keith, who quotes Haggard, but omits the I think he knows he's in over his head. Anybody with any sense who takes that job and thinks they can handle it must be an idiot part. Dishonesty by omission from Mr. Keith.

Why are you cheering about Obama passing more legislation in two years than any other President? As a candidate, Obama ran on a campaign promise of being a more open President, who would take time to consider the legislation he was signing. He was supposed to put the text of any new law on line for 5 days before signing.

You've just pointed out how badly he's broken that promise. Obama has been signing very complicated and long laws (such as the health care reform bill) without allowing the public to see and comment on them.

Ritmo, when the Dems took over Congress, unemployment was 4.6% and deficits were below $200M. You can't just ignore what your party did. The DEMOCRATS drove the economy off a cliff (stunning that youth unemploymeny skyrocketed just after the minimum wage hike, huh?).

As for their regulations: Wall St LIKES the regulations. And they donated overwhelmingly to Dems the last few cycles. Spare us the "Dems are fighting Wall St fatcats" nonsense since it was Dems who overwhelmingly supported the bailouts, TARP, et al.

I was very surprised to find the man very humble and he had a nice handshake. His wife was very cordial to the guests and especially me. They made a special effort to make me feel welcome. It was not at all the way the media described him to be."

Wall Street donates to anyone running who has a chance of doing their bidding once elected.

And I'm sure many financiers wouldn't mind a stable economy upon which to make money. Others, those more interested in "regulatory capture" for instance, just care about how much they alone can make.

Your generalizations and post hoc Monday morning quarterbacking do not merit serious response. Hitler rose to power shortly after humans conquered the skies and learned to fly. Does that mean aviation leads to genocidal world wars?

Ridiculous how much ignorance you've spewed. The difference is between working with Wall Street but not for them, to prevent the rest of the economy from plunging further, and using one's position in office merely to do what the most powerful and influential donor asks for. It's a difference of principle, and one that I don't expect you, or anyone else whose allegiance to the Greedy Old Prostitutes (GOP) party comes at the expense of the national interest, to understand.

Hitler rose to power shortly after humans conquered the skies and learned to fly.

Shortly?

Hitler became Chancellor in 1933. The first airplane flight occurred in 1903. We won't even go into hot air balloon flight.

Does that mean aviation leads to genocidal world wars?

Provided one ignores human history, sure.

I'm not sure if you hope to attempt to show how bad a poster can be at making analogies, but you are doing an impressive job.

Ridiculous how much ignorance you've spewed. The difference is between working with Wall Street but not for them, to prevent the rest of the economy from plunging further, and using one's position in office merely to do what the most powerful and influential donor asks for.

Obama was bought, completely, by Wall Street.

It's a difference of principle, and one that I don't expect you, or anyone else whose allegiance to the Greedy Old Prostitutes (GOP) party comes at the expense of the national interest, to understand.

The only groups who have done quite well under Obama are government union employees and Wall Street.

If he was bought by Wall Street (as opposed to working with them, as you claim he is) --- how would we know the difference?

What negative impact has Wall Street suffered under Obama? It's amazing how thoroughly Wall St owns the Democrat Party. It's been the case from Clinton forwards.